MIXED MEDIA

CREATIVE IDEAS MARKETING, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND WORKING WITH THE MEDIA

A Public Image Turnaround Story

In the Skokie Park Districts 1990 community survey, 82% of respondents said they never set foot in the district. Today, Skokie enjoys a 300% increase in program participation and a positive image rating that has nearly doubled.

BY STEVE HARTMAN

"If you work on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you."
—Stew Jobs

It's a vision of excellence in everything we do that has established the Skokie Park District as a viable community-based park and recreation agency. It is this vision that board members, employees, volunteers and friends of the park district have stood by to make this agency a collaborative success.

But this 69-year-old park district didn't always have the foresight to focus on the future. Five years ago, we said that as a community, we need to take a long, hard look at where the park district was and what its fullest potential could be.

We conducted extensive research projects and focus groups and held hundreds of hours of public hearings. The result: The community told us that we did not meet their needs for increased services and programs. Plus the district's facilities and parks, deteriorated by age and use, had remained virtually unchanged for 20 years and no longer met national safety and accessibility standards or were usable by the public.

The result was a commitment by the board of park commissioners to affect change. This change came in two forms. First we wanted to change the visual look of the park district. Secondly, we had to change the way our district conducted its business.

Utilizing the data and information gathered during the lengthy public-hearing process, the park district set off on a $45 million capital development program. Our theme, "Building for the future on a foundation of excellence," was designed to transform the district's entire infrastructure from outdated and unusable to modern and inviting to our potential users. This included the complete redevelopment of 43 neighborhood parks, two community centers, a cultural center, a nature center, a childcare facility, a nine-hole golf course, two indoor ice rinks, an outdoor refrigerated ice rink, two aquatic centers, the acquisition of 52 additional park acres that are being developed into a miniature golf course/driving range facility, a four stadium baseball complex and a boat launch for access to the North Shore Channel for recreational boating and fishing, and the acquisition of an existing building to be converted into a center exclusively for youth programming.

It also was made clear during the public-hearing process that the park district did not meet the customer service expectations of the residents. A 1990 survey indicated that 51 percent of our residents chose other oudets than the park district as their first choice as to where to spend their leisure dollars, and 50 percent were unaware of the park district entirely.

This was not acceptable and did not meet the expectation of "excellence in everything we do," as mandated by the park board. So a major effort began to change the internal culture of the park district and to turn the negative image to positive. Those efforts needed to go in several directions, including manage ment, marketing, maintenance and ongoing improvements.

The management structure of the park district was decentralized, empowering individual facility and program managers to make decisions based on our customers' needs. All employees were trained and participated in the Total Quality Management process. Many employee teams remain in place from that pro-

42/ Illinois Parks and Recreation

Left:A young girl smiles in the zero-depth pool at the newly renovated Skokie Park Distruct Oakton Water Playground Below: A neighborhood park-one of 43- that was remodeled in 1996

cess. Customer service is given top priority with the goal to gain new customers and develop a high customer-retention rate. The $45 million capital improvement program in every neighborhood resulted in increased visibility. However, that was not enough. A major commitment was made to marketing and advertising. A five-year marketing plan was developed and approved by the park board. Significant funding was, and continues to be attached to that plan. Efforts have been extremely successful and have dramatically increased the visibility of the park district. As a result, the agency has reaped the rewards of new—and repeat—business, season after season. The park district's expectation is that each day when customers walk into a park facility, go for a stroll in their neighborhood park or take their children to the neighborhood playground that they find the conditions as good or better than the day the area first opened. To accomplish this, a major commitment to maintenance and ongoing facility/park improvements was made. Today managers have complete control over the maintenance of their facilities. Our Park Services Department now has a modern stock of equipment and tools available that allows them to efficiently and effectively maintain the park system. And, through a comprehensive five-year plan, improvements are constantly taking place throughout the park district. What effect has these changes had? The results of a 1996 community survey tell the story. The park district has enjoyed a 300 percent increase in program participation. Seventy-one percent of our residents feel the quality of our programs are excellent, and 81 percent say we have now achieved excellence in terms of the quality of our facilities. Compare that statistic to a 1990 survey in which 82 percent of respondents never set foot in the park district and, worse yet, 49 percent actually responded negatively to us. Today we compare that to a 90 percent positive image rating. Yes, the vision of excellence has pulled the Skokie park district a long way. •

STEVE HARTMAN is the director of the Skokie Park District.

July/August 1997 /43